N00426:295
A companion for communicants. Discourses upon the nature, the design, and the subject of…
A companion for communicants. Discourses upon the nature, the design, and the subject of the Lords Supper; with devout methods of preparing for, and approaching to that blessed ordinance. / By Cotton Mather, Pastor of a church at Boston. ; [Seven lines from Augustine]
Boston: printed by Samuel Green for Benjamin Harris, 1690
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
In fine, Are the Works of God sought out by us, and do we take pleasure in those Wonderful Works? Do we delightfully trace the Footsteps of God in the works of Creation? Are we not only Rational, but also Religious Beholders of all B•ings, from the stars in the Firmament, unto the stones in the pavement and is that the shout of our Souls thereupon, O the power, the wisdom, the Goodness of that God, who made and keeps all of these! Do we likewise observe the works of Providence, and Sing unto the Lord, because He has done Excellent Things? Especially, Are we Reconciled unto the most Bitter Dispensations of the most High towards our selves? Do even Corrections and Afflictions which the Providence of God visits us withal, not •ifl our Spirits: but can we say, with David, It is Good for me that I have been afflicted? and can we say, with another, I can take any thing well at the Hands of God?
Secondly, We must Examine our selves, about our Love to MAN. And what is this Love, but, A Benevolence to all men, and a Complacence in Good men for the sake of God?
Murderers may not come to the Lords Table; but what are we better, with out, The Love of our Brother? If we give our own Bodies to be burned, and have not Charity, it profits nothing; nor will it profit us-any thing, ⟨p. 126⟩for us to come where the Body of the Lord, is Broken, if this Charity be absent from us.